Opposites
by LithiumBatteries
Summary: Set between TDI and TDA. Chris decides to coop up the campers at the Playa des Losers and try to squeeze as much airable footage out of them as possible. Plus, he's left a few of his favorite interns to watch over them... Noah/OC, misc. other parings.
1. You Gotta Be Kidding

A/N: Hello everyone!

This is my first attempt at fanfiction in a longggg time, and I know that TDA is already finished, but this takes place between TDI and TDA. This thing has been sitting around for a while now, and I've finally decided to submit it here. Critique is welcome, but no flames please. :C

Yes, this is is going to have OCs and cannon characters paired up, so if you don't like that stuff, please just don't read it.

Rated T for safety; contains a fair amount of cursing but not much other than that.

Major Pairings: Noah/OC, because he doesn't get enough love.

Minor Pairings: Possible eventual Cody/OC, possible eventual Eva/OC, cannon pairings.

I don't own any of these characters except for Abe, Seth, Alice and Riley.

* * *

"Aaaaaand welcome back to your home for the next few weeks!" Chris McClean ceremoniously threw open his arms as he stood in front of the enormous resort that was Playa des Losers. Twenty-two exhausted campers stood before him, looking dumbstruck. "Or, you know, a month. Or three."

"What the hell is this?" demanded a red-faced Heather. The rest of the campers murmured in agreement. After losing a certain silver case that contained one _million_ freaking dollars and being told that only the fourteen who were closest to winning would be participating in the next season of Total Drama Whatever-Chris-Was-Cooking-Up, they were all feeling rather dejected. Most of them had only gotten onto the boat with the promise that Chris was taking them home. NOT back to the resort. Granted, it was a nice resort, but it was a resort that they would have to share with twenty-one other campers that they had seen entirely too much of.

"Well, see, here's the thing," Chris explained, drawing out his words in an irritating manner. "It's going to take us a while to set up everything for the next season, so…"

"So take us home!" shouted someone in the group.

"Actually, we thought we'd just coop you all up in the Playa for a little while longer, you know? Milk you for all the footage you got."

"You can't do that!" protested another camper.  
Chris faked a sympathetic cringe. "Actually, yeah, we can. See, you're all still under contract. Have a nice stay." With one last gleaming smile, the host hopped back onto the boat. Chef threw the last piece of luggage off the boat and onto the dock, and then the vessel sped off. The campers caught glimpse of Chris leaning over the railing and calling out just loud enough to be heard over the boat engine, "Oh, and by the way! We left a few of our favorite interns to take care of you guys. They're _basically_ in charge until Chef and I get back. See you guys later!"

The stranded teens glanced at each other, exchanging looks of worry and confusion. Chris left a bunch of interns in charge? As one by one they focused their gaze on the Playa, questions floated through their minds (along with a few choice words for Chris). Where were these interns? And would these new faces make them as miserable as Chris did?

(Noah's POV)

"I have no doubt they'll be just as sadistic as Chris and Chef," I said as one of the bellhops carted my luggage away. I turned to Cody and sighed. He was entirely too optimistic about staying at the Playa for who knew how long.

"Dude, I'm sure they won't be that bad," protested Cody, ever the ray of sunshine. "After all, they had to put up with Chris, too, right? They probably have some sympathy for us."

"Right, and I'm the friggin' tooth fairy." I rolled my eyes and scanned the resort's lobby. It didn't look like many of the other teens were excited to be here, either. Where were these supposed interns anyway? There were plenty of resort staff members buzzing about and re-preparing the resort for our stay, but I recognized all of them from the weeks I had already spent at the Playa.

Just as I was beginning to suspect that the interns were off somewhere shirking their duties, the large doors that led to the dining hall burst open. I saw Cody jump with shock out of the corner of my eye, and Eva (whom I had, oddly enough, bonded with during my stay at the Playa and during the case-hunting challenge) whipped around to face the door with her fists raised. If I was upset about being stranded here, then Eva was _furious_.

I – and everyone else, for that matter – looked over the four figures who had barged so noisily into the lobby. Appearance-wise, they were remarkably different, and two of them were not exactly what I was expecting. What shocked me the most was that these kids were – well, kids. They all looked about the same age as any of us.

One was a rather tall and muscular boy who vaguely reminded me of DJ as far as stature went. He had his black hair in a crew cut and seemed to have somewhat Asian facial features. I had expected a muscle-man, and thus I was not really taken aback by this character, but this guy looked like he was on par with Eva. His white t-shirt lay somewhat forgotten across his shoulder, and he wore workout wristbands. Black and white sneakers adorned his feet, and he wore a pair of khaki shorts. The meathead's dark eyes looked rather cold as he scanned the room of teens. Yes, this is what I had been expecting; someone to provide an ominous presence, not unlike Chef Hatchet.

The second male reminded me of Chris. The other boy had a shaggy mane of mousy brown hair, and green eyes that surveyed the room as though he was focusing only on the females. He was somewhat tan and appeared Caucasian. He wore a simple, grey button-up shirt with white stripes, and very faded blue jeans. His hands were shoved in his pockets, his feet were wiggling in his black flip-flops, and his smile suggested he was planning – ugh – a wonderful challenge for us all to participate in.

Next to him, however, was a female. She looked a lot like she wanted to leave as much as the campers did, judging by her frown and the way she kept glancing at all the nearest exits. She seemed Hispanic by her facial features and skin color, and her dark brown hair was cropped an inch or two below her chin. It looked sleek, and the cut rose in the back to expose her neck, and her bangs were swept over to the left, though they didn't cover her heavily-lined, brown eyes. She wore a blue midriff, black jeans with a white belt, and blue wedge sandals. I couldn't help but notice that she was adorned with silver earrings, bracelets, and even a silver lip ring and silver studs on the belt. She was the first of the four to catch my gaze, but she swiftly looked away.

The last member of the group looked to be the most colorful of the four. She was Caucasian and blonde, but she had a horizontal black streak on the right, which accentuated her side-swept bangs. Her hair was heavily layered and fell well past the girl's shoulders, and she seemed to be having trouble keeping the bangs out of her bright blue eyes. She wore a white polo shirt with a red zero across the stomach, with blue jean Capri's, a black belt, and red converses. It didn't seem she wore much makeup, and she was the palest of the group, but I noticed she wore half a dozen rainbow rubber bracelets on one wrist. Her whole face seemed to smiling at everyone in the room.

In the case of the two males, it was obvious why they were shoe-ins to stay at the Playa. They were basically serving as a substitute Chris and Chef. The reason the two females were chosen were less obvious to me. The blonde girl actually looked… friendly? Nice? I wasn't sure what adjective to use, but she just wasn't the kind of person I would expect Chris to pick. He _wanted_ to make us miserable, so why would he choose someone kind? And the other girl simply looked like she wanted to bolt. She probably wouldn't interact with us at all.

"Welcome back to the Playa," said the one with the mousy hair with a chuckle. "And I'm sorry to say that your rooms have been _downsized._ But don't worry; you'll have a chance to win a much better room later." I shuddered at the word "win." I knew that Chris wouldn't let us go more than a week competition-free.

"But first, let me introduce myself." He jabbed his thumb at his face and said, "I'm Seth, and I think these three will agree that I'm the one who's really in charge here." He shoved his thumb at the muscled teen and introduced him as Abraham, whom "we could call Abe." He was about to jab his thumb at the brunette girl as well, but she stopped him with a glare.

"Don't point that thing at me," she said, and then turned to address the rest of the room. "I'm Riley, and don't let these morons scare you. Seth's really just a big baby, and Abe looks tough but he'd rather be cooped up in the gym or in the surveillance room playing with the cameras right now." The girl gestured to the blonde. "This is Alice, and she's probably the nicest of us. You'll want to be buddy-buddy with her, 'cuz she'll help you with challenges. Though, she'd probably help you even if she hates you. Allie, stop smiling like that, you look like a creeper," finished Riley, smacking the other girl lightly in the arm.

The blonde, Alice, smacked her back, though she toned down the smile a few notches. "Whatever, panda-eyes," she teased, referring to the other's heavy eyeliner. I figured there was some sort of long-lasting friendship dynamic between the two. "Anyway, like Seth said, you've been moved to smaller rooms than before. Sorry about that. You can pick up your room keys at the front counter."

The small group of interns waited while everyone collected their room keys and the buzz of conversation filled the room. After retrieving my key, I returned to my original position by the elevator with Cody and Eva. I wanted to get out of here as soon as the interns were finished. I didn't _care_ how small my room was, as long as I got away from all this noise.

Once the chatter had died down, the tough-acting guy, Seth, began to speak again. "Look, I'm not going to lie. Your rooms are tiny. But, there's one suite in this hotel that's enormous. It was originally the honeymoon suite, and it's the only one, so of course it's the best room the Playa's got. It's got a fully-stocked kitchen, a bathroom with a hot tub, and probably the biggest bed you've ever seen. It's even decked out with a plasma TV and three video game consoles."

Video games?

Okay, so maybe I did care. All I had brought to this miserable place was my Nintendo DS, and I'd beaten all my games three times over. I'd kill for something new.

Seth grinned mischievously and continued. "It's all yours and you can do whatever you want with it for the next two nights if you win the challenge. Then you relinquish the key to us, and someone else gets a chance at the suite. Sound good?"

He was greeted with a chorus of "yes!" and "just tell us what we have to do already!"

"Okay," announced Riley, "Here's today's challenge…"


	2. The Girlhunt

A/N: Wow, so... Hey. I haven't updated this story in three years! Golly. I abandoned it because I got busy with school and I couldn't figure out where I wanted to take the plot. I had two or three chapters written, but I've lost them now.

Shockingly, it kept getting positive reviews over the years (thanks guys!) and I have a little free time on my hands so I've decided to try picking up where I left off. Thanks for reading!

* * *

Riley, who before had looked extremely bored, now wore a very mischievous grin as she prepared to tell us all what our challenge would be. I wasn't really sure if I liked this girl. She was starting to seem almost as sadistic as Seth.

"It's a paintball fight," she said, squinting and sizing up the campers. "Every man for himself. Now, that's not to say you can't form alliances. That would probably be advisable, really, but it's totally up to you."

"The goal is really simple," Alice chimed in. "All you have to do is be the last one standing. As for rules, well, there aren't really many of those either. The biggest one is that you have to stay in the building, the pool area, or the docks. If we find out you left the resort, you're disqualified."

Seth nudged her out of the way so that he could be front and center. "There's a sweet twist though. We're not giving you any guns or equipment at the start. You gotta _find_ them! We've hidden paintball guns, ammo, and makeshift armor all over the resort, and we're not giving you any hints as to where it is."

"What are you talking about?" Riley interrupted as she shoved him. "Allie's the hint-giver." She turned back to the group of campers. "Once the game starts, Alice will run off and hide somewhere. If you can find her and convince her to tell you anything, she'll lead you to the best guns and armor."

Alice piped up again. "By the way, the armor is one-use only. You can get hit in each piece of your armor once and still be in the game, but if you're hit anywhere else or more than once, you're out."

Finally, Abe spoke up. He sure was quiet. "I'll be watching you on the cameras. Don't cheat. I'll know. I'll also be announcing over the intercoms when anyone gets disqualified."

Just as I noticed Alice had slipped out of the lobby's front door, Seth dug a whistle out of his pocket and held it up to his mouth. "You guys ready? Well, it doesn't really matter if you are or not, because the game's about to start regardless." He inhaled sharply and blew the whistle as shrilly and loudly as he could. I slammed my hands over my ears and grimaced.

"Go, go, go!" shouted Riley over the noise of the whistle, pumping her fist in the air.

The group of campers flooded out the front door. A couple people stayed in the lobby and started frantically pressing the button to call the elevator, and a few others made their way to the stairs. A couple of stragglers, like Duncan, stayed right were they were. I assumed they didn't care enough about the room to participate in these stupid challenges.

I looked over at Cody and Eva, who had also stayed. None of us had moved yet. I was still trying to decide if having access to video games was worth actual _physical activity_.

"Do you guys maybe, uh, wanna team up?" Cody shrugged and took turns glancing at me, and then Eva.

I shrugged as well, and Eva nodded. "I guess we might as well," I said.

"If one of us wins, I get the room," Eva demanded.

"That's fine with me. Just let me use the game consoles," I agreed.

Cody nodded. "That's really the only reason I'd want the room too."

Eva seemed to be mulling it over for a second, and then she nodded again. "Deal. So, smarty-pants," she said, looking at me. "What's the plan?"

I halted. I hadn't actually thought of a plan yet. Stalling for time, I glanced around the room and worked my tongue in my mouth, trying to think of something. "I think..." I started, and then paused, "we should look for Alice. We might find paintball guns or armor while looking for her anyway, and if we do find her, we could get her to lead us to better weapons. They probably have something really good hidden away where only she can get to it."

Eva started for the door. "Well, what are we waiting for then? Blondie went out this way, didn't she?"

Cody nodded, and we both followed her out the door. Outside, some of the campers were rummaging in the bushes or talking to each other and glancing around. It didn't really look like anyone had found anything useful yet. I started heading towards the back of the building and gestured at Cody and Eva for them to follow me.

"Why are we going around the back?" Cody asked as he trudged along behind me.

"The pool area and the entrance are too close by and obvious. I think she would've hidden somewhere else." I made sure to keep my voice at a whisper so that other nearby campers wouldn't overhear and steal our - admittedly really weak - plan.

Cody, Eva and I crept around the side of the building, looking around for potential hiding spots. There wasn't much back there besides some bushes and a patio by the back entrance.

"What a letdown," muttered Eva bitterly.

Something felt amiss. There was almost too little back here. "I still think she might be here," I replied.

Looking around, I noticed a smaller, employee-only entrance besides the larger one that led into the resort's halls. I moved towards it and shook the handle, not expecting it to actually be open. Surprisingly, it turned easily and I pulled it open.

Cody looked over my shoulder, into the darkness of a long hallway behind the door. "Should we really be going in there?"

"Who cares?" shouted Eva. "There's bound to be something in there. They wouldn't just leave it unlocked for no reason."

We crowded inside the small and dank hallway and made our way deeper inside. There were a couple of other doors that looked like broom closets, and we tried the handles but they were all locked. By the time we got to the eighth door I'd pretty much expected them all to be locked, but this one flew open easily and I almost tumbled inside.

"Oh, seriously?" came a whine from inside the room. "I literally just got here!"

I looked over at Alice, who sat on a cardboard box in the small and empty room with her hands on her knees. She sighed heavily and threw her hands up in the air. "Well, you guys found me! Was my hiding spot really that shit?"

"Yeah," I answered, quirking up one of my eyebrows, "we just followed the glow of your obnoxiously neon bracelets."

I expected her to be irritated by my quip, but she let out a short but genuine laugh instead.

Eva muscled her way past me and into the room. "Alright Blondie, where's all the good loot?"

Alice looked taken aback for a second, but then smiled crookedly. "Now now," she scolded "you're supposed to be convincing me to tell you, not demanding. Or are you trying to use a brute force method?"

"I will if I have to, girlie," Eva said through gritted teeth as she cracked her knuckles. She was getting pissed.

Cody made his way into the small room as well. "Come on, Eva. You catch more flies with honey than with... vinegar? I think that's how that saying goes. Anyway, the point is, I'm sure we can get Alice to tell us without resorting to violence."

Eva only gave him a derisive look in reply.

I rolled my eyes. Even if Eva and I were on good terms now, I still found her methods too abrasive. I watched for a moment as Cody continued to fail spectacularly at calming Eva down, and then turned to look at Alice.

"Do you like video games?"

"Sorry?" she answered inquisitively, looking back at me.

"Do you like video games?" I repeated slower, like I was talking to someone who didn't speak my language.

She gave me a scathing look that rivaled Eva's and shrugged. "Yeah? I'm not a hardcore gamer or anything but they're a fun time-waster."

"If you help us win, you can use the consoles in the deluxe suite. Cody and I will even play with you if you like co-op. Boost your prestige on Call of Duty, or whatever." As much as I liked video games, first-person shooters had never been one of my preferred genres. They were too banal for my tastes.

"_Call of Duty!_" Alice whooped loudly and slapped her knee. "Yes, I'm so big on FPS games!" She peered up at me through her bangs with a sarcastic expression. "Noah, the last game I played was a flash game on Neopets-dot-com. Do I look like I spend my days riding battle tanks in Halo?"

I chuckled, and then stopped with surprised when I realized what I was doing. Typically I only laughed at my own jokes. "Well, we'll help you take care of your Animal Crossing town then. It doesn't matter. Whatever you want. Just get us to the good loot and help us win."

"Wait a second," Cody interrupted. "How'd you know Noah's name?"

Alice knitted her brows in response, but still smiled. "Well, obviously all the interns have seen the show. Why do you think we would be crazy enough to sign up to intern for next season? All four of us were fans."

"Wait, really?" I asked, raising an eyebrow. I had to admit I was a little surprised. Seth seemed like someone who would love Total Drama, and I guess I could see Alice liking it too, but I couldn't imagine Abe or Riley enjoying mindless reality television.

"Yeah," Alice shrugged. "We were friends before we signed up to intern, actually. We used to watch the show together. In any case," she said, finally standing up from the box she was sitting on, "I guess I should show you where the sweet loot is."


	3. Getting to Know

"So you are going to help us?" Cody asked as we followed Alice out of the room and down the hallway.

"Yeah, why not? I haven't got anything better to do." At the end of the hallway was a door, which led to the gigantic hotel laundry room. Alice went over to the third washing machine, opened the door, and pulled out a surprisingly high quality paintball gun. She passed it and a handful of ammo to Eva, who inspected the gun and then held it properly.

Alice also pulled out some pieces of shoddy-looking armor made from cardboard and duct tape. There were three chest-plates, so Eva, Cody, and I split them amongst ourselves. Alice passed a smaller paintball gun to me, but I passed it over to Cody. Neither of us were very good at aiming on the fly, but at least if I gave it to Cody no one could blame me for missing an easy shot.

"Well, that's all of it." Alice slammed the door of the machine shut and turned to face it. "That's all I can help you with. Actually winning is up to you." She placed one hand on her hip and made a shooing motion with the other, indicating for us to go back out the way that we came.

We headed back out through the lobby, Alice trailing behind us. I threw open the door that led back outside -

and immediately a paintball hit me square in the face.

I cried out and stumbled backwards, cracking my head on the door frame as I collapsed on the ground. Behind me I heard Alice trying to choke back a giggle, which came out as a snort instead.

"Oh, come _on_," Eva fumed. I was busy wiping paint out of my eyes, so I didn't see, but I heard her fire a couple of shots and then a shrill and frustrated cry.

"You big ape!" It sounded like Heather's voice. "This was my favorite top!"

The speaker near the back entrance of the building crackled to life. "Heather and Noah are out," came Abe's slightly garbled voice.

"Well thanks so much for the _help_, string bean." Eva's voice was laden with sarcasm. She helped me off the ground and then motioned for Cody to follow her around the front of the building. Cody looked over his shoulder at me as they walked off and gave me an apologetic smile and waved. Heather had disappeared as well. I'd gotten most of the paint out of my eyes but my vision was still blurry for some reason.

I felt Alice's hand on my shoulder. "That's a nice shiner, dude."

Reaching up for my left eye, it definitely felt raw and puffy. It must've taken the brunt of the shot. "Great," I droned.

She was smiling at me crookedly again, looking very amused. Then her eyes fell on the back of my head and I saw her face fall. "Oh, Noah, you're bleeding!"

I reached up a second time and felt around the back of my head. Something was definitely stinging. I looked at my hand, and sure enough, there was a bit of blood on my fingers.

"Oh no," she murmured, suddenly sounding disturbingly motherly. "Let me see it." She moved behind me, tiled my head down, and suddenly she was moving my hair out of the way to get a better look at my wound.

I started to turn around to stop her, but stopped myself instead. As embarrassing as it was to have her doting on me, I guess I did need my wound treated, and I couldn't see the back of my own head.

"It doesn't look too bad, but we should clean it up at least, and put some ice on that eye. Come on," she said, taking my hand and leading me through the back entrance.

We made our way into the lounge next to the lobby and into a staff room off to the side. She rummaged around in the drawers until she found a first aid kit, and then we headed off again to the bathroom. She turned the faucet on and started tending to my cut.

I bent my head down slightly so that she could better see the wound. It was uncomfortably silent for a while, with nothing but the sound of the water running.

After a while, she had my head all wrapped up. "Alright. Let's get something for your eye now."

We traveled through the lounge to the resort mess hall and then to the kitchen. She fished a sack of peas out of one of the large freezers and held it to my eye until I placed my own hand over it.

"Thanks," I said, a little begrudgingly. I didn't need someone to take care of me. Coming from a large family like mine, you learn to take care of yourself very quickly.

She smiled and turned away, looking a little unsure of what she should do now. Something had been bothering me for a while, though. When she'd been talking about how she, Riley, Seth, and Abe were friends "before" the show, she said it in a way that made me wonder if they were still friends. They'd seemed to be on decent terms with each other earlier, and it wasn't any of my business, but...

"Hey," I started, to get her attention. "Earlier you said you and the other interns were friends before you got here."

"Oh, yeah," she replied, "we were."

"Were. You're not anymore?"

"Well, no - I mean, yes. I don't know. Sort of." She turned her face away again, hoisting herself up onto one of the counters.

I leaned back against the opposite counter and raised my visible eyebrow at her - the other was still hidden behind the frozen peas - but stayed silent. I had to admit I was a little curious about the inner drama of our new torturers, but I wasn't going to press the issue if she didn't feel like telling me. It seemed I was on her good side so far, and I wasn't willing to risk it.

She looked back at me, chewing on her bottom lip as though she was trying to decide whether or not she should talk to me about it. "I guess we're still friends, but not as good as we used to be," she started, quietly, as though she were testing the words out for the first time. "Seth's gotten really caught up in being the next Chris McClean, and Abe's taken to cutting himself off from all of us. I mean, he was always quiet, but now he never seems to want to hang out. Riley and I are still good friends, but she and Seth fight almost constantly now."

"You know," I said, while readjusting the bag of peas on my eye, "not to insult your former friend or anything, but Seth seems like a real ass. Oh, wait, no, never mind, I definitely mean to insult him."

She laughed weakly. "Yeah, he sort of is. Honestly, even I don't like spending time with him anymore. He's been such a huge dingus since we started working for Chris."

"Chris generally does have that effect on people. He's a real dingus-maker."

She laughed again, but it was more genuine this time. "Yeah, but I mean - he's just a _suck up_. Whenever he would catch us slacking off even a little, he'd run off and tattle on us to Chris. And another time, he was complaining to Chris that I spend too much time on my paintings, even though it's during our free time, and Chris joked that he should toss them in the lake - and he actually did! He gathered up as many of my paintings as he could hold and went to the dock and tossed them all in the water." She was sounding horribly bitter now, getting angry for the first time since I'd met her.

"Like I said, he sounds like a dick." I caught her gaze finally - she'd been looking around the room until now - and she shrugged.

"Yeah, I guess he is."

It was silent again for a while. In the distance, a speaker crackled. It was impossible to tell what or how many names were being said, but someone must have been eliminated from the game. I'd almost forgotten about it.

She was looking down at her feet hanging of the edge of the counter. I guess I didn't really have much else to do until the game was over but make small talk.

"You paint?" I asked.

"Something like that!" She seemed to perk up a little. "I mean, I'm not particularly good, but it's fun. It's a hobby, I guess."

I had to admit, I was a little curious. I bet she was better than she thought she was. She seemed like the type to be hard on her own work. I wondered what she painted. Nauseatingly trite scenes of rainbows and unicorns, maybe?

"Do you have any of your paintings here?" I asked.

"Yeah!" She was looking excited now. "Do you... d'you want to see them?"


End file.
